Ballerina happy to dance to her own tune

Philippa Hawker

Published: December 8 2012 - 3:00AM

ALMOST everyone said the same thing to Danielle Rowe, dancers and non-dancers alike. When she told people she had decided to join the contemporary company Nederlands Dans Theater, the immediate reaction - she draws in her breath to demonstrate the shock-horror - was almost universal. ''No more pointe shoes?!''

Is that really the case? ''Never say never,'' she says, but after being principal dancer with the Australian Ballet and the Houston Ballet, she has put them aside for now. ''I feel really strong working this way, and if I put them back on again, I know it will feel different. I'm hoping that in some ways it would feel easier.''

Rowe, 30, spent 10 years with the AB, where she became a principal in 2008, and was twice winner of the Telstra People's Choice Award. In 2011, she joined Houston Ballet, and was promoted to principal. In 2012, she was named as one of Dance Magazine's 25 To Watch - described as ''a modern version of an old-fashioned ballerina. Queenly without added pretension.''

Yet she was ready, she says, speaking via Skype from The Hague, to make another change. ''I practically had my tutu glued to my hips and my pointe shoes glued to my feet in Houston. I felt really fulfilled there, after a season and a half, and I felt I wanted to try something completely different. To work in a different way, approach my dancing from another place.''

Nederlands Dans Theater has been an influential, innovative force in contemporary dance for more than half a century: recently it became one of a small number of performing arts companies to present programs of its new works in cinemas, recorded live. A program is showing this weekend at selected cinemas around the country. It includes a performance of the first work Rowe danced with it, - Chamber, a new piece created by dancer turned freelance choreographer Mehdi Walerski that was inspired by Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring. ''It's very simple and understated,'' she says, ''but quite mesmerising.''

It was, she says, ''a wonderful piece to be involved in for my first work with NDT, because it wasn't too far removed from the movement I'm used to.''

The NDT Live cinema program also includes two works by its legendary choreographer and one-time artistic director Jiri Kylian. There is also a piece by Paul Lightfoot, the artistic director of NDT, and Sol Leon, his wife and choreographic partner.

The transition from being a principal in a ballet company to a dancer in a smaller contemporary company has been more straightforward than she expected, Rowe says. ''It's almost like NDT is a company of principals. Everyone is very confident within themselves.'' Moving to Europe has had its ups and downs, but she feels settled now, she says.

NDT tours regularly, and next year, the schedule will include Australia, the first time Rowe will have returned home since she left for Houston. The company has a short season at the Sydney Opera House in June, which will include Kylian's Saraband and Sweet Dreams, and Shoot The Moon, a Lightfoot-Leon work in which she is a cast member.

''When I first came here, and was looking at all these amazing dancers, I was thinking I don't know how they do that. And now I am starting to do some of those things.''

NDT Live is at selected cinemas on December 8 and 9.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/ballerina-happy-to-dance-to-her-own-tune-20121207-2b0tu.html